If you’re not a tennis fan, you won’t know how bizarre today’s song is.

Us Scotts (i.e., the family I’m in) are tennis fans, so it was utterly and totally bemusing, bewildering, and be-WHAT??? when an episode of Would I Lie To You, a British comedy quiz show about fibbing, offered the following information that wasn’t a fib:

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray rapped in a song that sold only 200 copies (out of 1,000 that were made).

I finished my little Pilot listening adventure (thanks for making four albums, chaps) the other day, then moved on to sort-of-Pilot-spin-off, Beagle Hat, and their two albums, Magical Hat (2006) and Orange Groove (2009). Beagle Hat is the combination of a Japanese band (Beagle Hat) and Pilot’s lead singer/bassist David Paton.

Both albums are enjoyable (think “ornate pop music” and you’re there), but there’s one track on Orange Groove called “Happy Eddie” that got me terribly excited.

If you’ve ever wanted an early-’80s power pop band sound like King Crimson, then Beagle Hat have a song for you…

Most noticeably, the chorus of Adam’s song shares the same chord progression as the chorus of Fountains Of Wayne’s “The Summer Place”. The chord progression is F, C, G, E7, Am, F, C, G, and E7. You can hear it in Adam’s song from 0:26-0:53, and in the Fountains Of Wayne song from 0:48-1:02.

Except for the Fountains of Wayne thing, none of this is terribly specific. It’s more the “vibe” than anything.

I must admit that I was a little surprised at Adam’s voice, in that I find it ever-so-slightly weedy. It’s a little thinner than I had imagined. When the song started I thought the music sounded muscular, and I imagined that when the voice came in it was going to be a big booming baritone. Adam’s is a light tenor.

I like the moody middle eight (1:50-2:19). The two things I liked most about it were the wonderfully disorienting digital delay applied to the vocals, and the sound of the bass drum. That’s a really nice bass drum sound.

Oh, and speaking of musical coincidences: the vocal melody in the chorus of this song is the same as the one in the chorus of Rob Bonfiglio’s “Blow Me Away”, but reversed. They share the same melody, but in Adam’s song the notes are high/low/high/low, whereas in Rob’s they’re low/high/low/high.

0:00-0:04 – This tiny part of the introduction made me think I was hearing a tonight-show band. (“And right after the break we’ll be joined by the latest movie heart-throb who’ll be telling us how great his latest movie is, and how he got on so well with his co-stars, and how it had always been his dream to work with the movie’s director…”)

A sweet song that sounds to me a little late-Fifties/early-Sixties-inspired in its chord progression and rhythm. Maybe it’s sounding more early-Seventies.

The vocal melody in the chorus reminds me of something else, but I can’t think of what that something is. Grrr.

In the time it took me to type those two paragraphs the song finished. I can’t think of that other song. The melody’s now stuck in my head, but my neurons aren’t making the connection. Ah well. Next song.

5. “Invisible”

Not to be confused with…

Adam’s “Invisible” starts off a bit unpromisingly to me. It starts with a slow techno beat. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to techno music. I don’t know what kind of slow techno music I thought it was going to be. Is it called “dub step”? “House dub”? “Rub a dub-dub”? Anyway, this is the kind of thing that reminds me of Björk when she decides to slow things right down.

I’m also not especially keen on the gospel choir yelling “Oh yeah!” at various times in the song. (They go “Oh yeah!” in earnest and repeatedly from 1:47-2:16 and then from 2:51-3:25.)

And…

I don’t know why Adam decided to add that effect to his voice from 1:13-1:43. He didn’t have it on his voice anywhere else in the song, so what was special about those lines that warranted the sound effect?

The more I listened to this song, the more its mood reminded me of late Pink Floyd (i.e., after The Wall).

Speaking of Pink Floyd, who was doing all that “Great Gig In The Sky” singing from 2:52-3:25? I don’t think it was Adam. (Update: It was someone called Laura Drew. Hi, Laura!)

Nup. “Invisible” didn’t do much for me.

6. “Quantum Love”

Oh-oh. Every time I see the word “quantum” in a title, I remember Quantum Of Solace, the dreadfully-named James Bond movie that had its star, Daniel Craig, spending a great deal of time in interviews trying to explain why it was called that. (He seemed to spend more time talking about the title than the actual movie.)

Despite all of that, how about I just listen to the song?

I’m now listening to it.

Nope. This one isn’t doing much for me either. And the studio trick with the plummeting background vocals from 1:04-1:07 didn’t help.

I did like the choice of chord at 1:23 though. And the well-played guitar solo from 1:50-2:09 was, er, well-played. But the rest of the song simply put me in the mood to hear the next song (as in: “I’d like this song to finish so I can hear the next one”).

7. “Long Cold Winter”

I prefer this to the two previous tracks, but only by a little.

I like the bells.

Songwriting criticism: In the choruses (e.g., 1:32) I think the D in the vocal and the C sharp in the chord clash horribly.

1:50-1:52 – very nice.

Actually, the more I listen to “Long Cold Winter” the more I think it’s a fine song – but I also think its emotional effect is dampened by coming directly after two very low-key songs.

I really hope the next song is upbeat.

8. “Lullaby”

Well, it’s not upbeat, but it is pretty.

Given that this is track 8 out of 13, I dare say Adam considers this to be the emotional heart of the album.

1:32 – You are talking about those potato fritter things called hash browns here, aren’t you Adam?

10. “Sailing Ships”

Oh-oh. Another low-key song.

This is nice enough, but where are the pop songs?

11. “Dying In Slow Motion”

This is pleasant, with its steady chk-chk-chk-chk eighth-note rhythm, but I’m still keen on hearing something a little cheerier.

I will say this about Adam: he’s very thoughtful.

The more I’m listening to this album, the more I’m thinking it’s not really power pop. I think this album could more reasonably be filed under “Adult Oriented Rock” in your local record store.

Oh, and what’s with the I’m-on-the-other-end-of-the-telephone sound effect on the voice from 3:18-3:53? Why do so many musicians use that effect? It gives me the heebie jeebies. As far as I’m concerned, the only time it’s ever been used properly (i.e., in context) is on Electric Light Orchestra’s “Telephone Line” (1976).

12. “These Shy Things”

Adam being thoughtful again.

13. “Hold On”

Adam sure is thoughtful – and I think I’m suffering from an overload of tenderness.

2:12-2:30 – I like the use of brass here. (Note to Adam: If you ever feel the need to re-record this song, would you mind having the brass louder next time?)

3:29-4:31 – More brass. Yum.

***

Well, I’ve now heard the album in its entirety and have a very definite view about it:

I think the album’s OK. I enjoyed it in parts, but overall it was a bit too, er, thoughtful for my liking. I reckon if Adam ditched about three songs I would have enjoyed it more.

This coincidence may be a tricky one to present to you. It involves a very new song by an artist on a major label.

As I’ve found in the past, the major labels that these artists are on don’t take too kindly to bloggers putting even tiny amounts of the artists’ music on blogs. When a blogger does attempt to put said music on their blog, the major labels tend to wield big legal sticks and say sorts of unpleasant things.

But as Dragnet used to say, “Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”

So I’m going to change the name of the major label artist, but you’ll be able to discover the identity through the links.